


Protection

by Arrival_Of_Dawn



Category: Final Fantasy XIII, Final Fantasy XIII Series
Genre: Canon Compliant, Canon-Typical Violence, F/M, Family Fluff, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Injury, Minor Injuries, Minor Violence, Other, Short & Sweet, Team Dynamics, Team as Family, They are all one big happy family okay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-23
Updated: 2020-03-23
Packaged: 2021-02-28 21:21:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,499
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23283928
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Arrival_Of_Dawn/pseuds/Arrival_Of_Dawn
Summary: Hope takes his eyes off the enemy for a moment and in doing so Lightning takes a critical hit that should have been for him. To make matters worse his magic isn't healing her.Now he's panicking and reflecting on himself, his actions, and how much Lightning and his newfound family means to him.
Relationships: Hope Estheim & Lightning, Hope Estheim & Snow Villiers, Hope Estheim/Lightning
Comments: 2
Kudos: 24





	Protection

It was all Hope’s fault. The reason Lightning was ill, the fact that they were hiding out at the mouth of a cave overlooking the bright green fields, and the fact that their group was split up again was his entire fault.

The fight was going to be tricky, but not impossible. A Behemoth King in battle with a pack of Megistotherian’s usually meant that the group would avoid the scrap, but the creatures were directly in the path that led to where they had to go.

As usual Lightning took point, though she had gotten better at deferring to Fang and the others when the situation called for it, and signaled for Hope and Fang to follow. She gestured for the others to stay back and make sure nothing else tried to attack them.

That mistake had already been made and it ended with Snow and Sazh taking awful hits to the back that knocked them unconscious for the better part of an hour. They couldn’t afford to lose more time as their brands were opening and the race to complete their Focus loomed overhead.

Lightning bent down, Blazefire Saber clutched tight in her grip, and snuck up on the Megistotherian’s. She got three good slashes in their backs before they finally set their sights on her. Hope and Fang jumped in, bouncing between buffing the team, sabotaging the enemy, and healing.

And just as Lightning had predicted more enemies tried to capitalize on the battle and looped in to get the jump on them. Luckily Snow, Sazh, and Vanille were ready for them and drew them away from the main battle.

Two of the Megistotherian’s fell, but Hope’s relief at there only being one left was short lived. The Behemoth King stood on its large hind legs and towered above them like a monster of myth. Each step was like an earthquake that shook them off balance. Hope only managed to avoid the initial swipe of the larger than life blade because he was unsteady on his feet and toppled back in time.

“Time to switch it up,” Lightning said.

Hope nodded and switched back over to his synergist role while Fang provoked both enemies. The Megistotherian took a large swipe at Fang just as she put up her mediguard. Hope released a shaky breath at the close call and proceeded to put protect around her for extra safety.

He cast protect on himself next and was waiting for the final charge in his power before he could cast it on Lightning as well. His eyes were trained on her as she swept around the Behemoth King pushing him back in the hopes of buying them enough time to take down the final Megistotherian before turning their sites on him.

She back flipped effortlessly out of the way of another swipe and Hope couldn’t help it as he watched in awe. There was always something special about Lightning when she fought that captured him. He hardly had a chance to really watch her fight because he was usually battling alongside her focusing hard on chaining attacks with her to stagger their enemy or healing her when she got a little too cocky and took a hit. He could count on one hand the amount of times she had opted to remove him from her battle party since they became L’Cie.

She was just so graceful in her movements, and strong. She was firm and lethal with every strike then somehow became lighter than air to tumble and flip out of harm’s way. One of his favorite moments was when she was jumped back, turning over herself, and still managed to switch her blade into its alt gun mode and get off an expertly timed shot that often took their enemies off guard allowing him enough time to cast magic to stagger them.

Not to say that the others weren’t amazing either. Hope found himself constantly learning from them and their unique fighting styles. Lightning just happened to be special. Maybe that was because he was closer to her than the others. The time they spent with just the two of them had been such a period of growth for Hope. He had admired Lightning then, but now he looked at her in a new light. He didn’t place her on the pedestal he did before, not after their argument back home, but he continued to look up to her and revel in her lethal grace.

Hope’s mistake had been taking his eyes off the enemy to watch Lightning. He hadn’t noticed the Megistotherian circle around Fang, having grown bored of her, and race in his direction.

“Hope!” Lightning yelled.

He turned in time to see the giant paw lift. It’s claws glinted in the light and Hope stumbled back ready to let out what would not be a life saving attack when suddenly pink and red stepped into his line of sight.

Lightning’s shriek chilled Hope down to his core. He’d heard her pained cries before. Battling alongside someone for this long meant that injuries were bound to happen, but he had never heard her make such a raw, throat ripping sound like that before. His heart stopped, then clenched tightly as she stumbled back. He rushed forward to catch her before she could fall, but she took three large steadying steps then righted herself.

The look in her eyes was murderous as she threw her shoulders back and charged back in to battle. Without being told Hope switched to his medic role and began to cast healing magic on her. He paused when his foot sank into something wet. Glancing down he caught the sight of the soil beneath his feet stained red by a deep pool of blood. He wanted to vomit.

Looking back up he noticed that blood followed every movement she made, arcing through the air and splattering across the green grass. The vile green and purple vapors that rose from her wound that Hope still could not see, let him know that she had been poisoned and cursed in one fell swoop.

“Let’s wrap this up,” Lightning barked.

Hope switched roles again and cast protect on Lightning before switching over to a Ravager. They staggered the Behemoth King and soon after he fell. Hope rushed over to Lightning as soon as they were certain no more enemies were coming for them.

“Lightning! Are you okay? I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean—.” His breath caught in his throat when he finally saw her.

Lightning was trying hard to stand straight, but slowly she began to bend over as she let out ragged breaths. Sweat plastered her hair to her face and flecks of blood had gotten on the tips. What truly scared Hope wasn’t the fact that the infallible Lightning was finally reacting to an injury, something she seldom did, but the injury itself.

Three large slashes pulled apart the skin from her left shoulder down her torso. For some reason his magic had stitched together her clothing, but not the wounds. Blood soaked through the material of her coat and in the open patch around her naval he could see rivulets of blood pouring down.

“Hope, what were you thinking? You could have gotten killed,” Lightning panted.

Fang rushed over and put an arm around her. Her eyes darted around until they landed on a ridge not too far away.

“We take shelter there for now. Hope, go tell the others,” Fang instructed.

Hope couldn’t tear his eyes away from Lightning’s paling face. “But I—,”

“Don’t argue,” Lightning told him. “I’ll be okay.”

Hope seriously doubted that. Never before had his magic not sewn flesh and mended bone back together seamlessly. And he was pretty darn good at healing magic. He didn’t want to brag but he was the best out of them all and he didn’t want to leave Lightning alone looking as bad as she did.

“I’ve got her,” Fang said a little softer.

Hope stiffly nodded then took off in the direction he was sure the others had gone in. He didn’t have to go too far before he noticed them finishing up against a group of Leyak and Rangda’s.

Snow pounded his fists against each other triumphantly. “All right, let’s go see how the others are doing!” He swung around and stopped short as he saw Hope’s terrified face. “Whoa, hey what’s going on?”

Hope couldn’t look any of them in the eye as he rattled off what happened. “Lightning’s injured really bad. Fang took her over there.” He pointed in the direction and the four of them raced in that direction.

Snow kept shooting Hope looks that he diligently tried to ignore.

“She’ll be alright,” Snow told him. “She’s tough.”

“I know that,” Hope bit back. “But you didn’t see her.”

Snow turned his attention back ahead of them as they closed in on the outcropping Fang pointed to. “Guess I will now.”

They slid to a stop in front of the mouth of a cave. Fang was bent down in front of Lightning who sat propped up against the wall a little way’s back. Fang adjusted the fabric of her coat as the others drew near and stood.

“I don’t know how the creature did it, but it cursed her with a fast acting poison. It’s spreading fast.”

Vanille stepped forward. “You mean like back on Oerba?”

Fang nodded. “Same deal it looks like.”

Hope didn’t want to just stand around doing nothing so he brushed past the group to sit on his knees in front of Lightning. He placed his hands and allowed his medicinal magic to overtake him.

“That won’t work,” Fang called back to him.

Hope grit his teeth. “How do you know?”

“Because it didn’t work when you tried earlier.” Fang paused to watch Vanille as she came up to Hope and crouched down. She placed a hand over his and added her healing magic to his. “You know that’s not going to work!” Fang tried again.

Together Hope and Vanille attempted to mend her wounds or extract the poison. Together they managed to dispel the curse. Hope could tell because the blackened edges of the wounds he could see when they pulled down her collar were gone. The poison however was still in place and without removing that the wounds would not close.

Vanille made a soft, mournful noise in the back of her throat before standing. “I think I know what we can use to extract the poison.”

Fang arched a brow. “Yeah? And what do you propose we do? Run to Oerba and pick it up if it’s even still there?”

Vanille shook her head. “The antidote from our time wouldn’t be potent enough anyway, but I remember how to make it.”

Hope perked up at that. “Let me help you get it!”

Vanille smiled at him and shook her head again. “No. You need to stay here and monitor Lightning. Besides Fang and I can find it! She’s the only other one who will know what to look for.”

Hope almost wanted to cry. He felt helpless again like he did back when his mother—no. He wouldn’t go there. He had to be strong.

Vanille had a point. She and Fang were the only two from Gran Pulse and as such they would know exactly what to keep an eye out for. After some arguing between the remaining adults on who should go with their party to help keep them safe Fang finally snubbed all their efforts. She said she and Vanille would be extra careful to avoid battles as this was time sensitive and they should be back within the hour.

This left Snow and Sazh to guard the outskirts of the cave while Hope continued his fruitless effort to heal Lightning.

Her breathing was shallow but evened out as she slipped into unconsciousness. Hope hated seeing her like this. Never before had he seen her show a moment of weakness like this. Sure she let down walls around him and the others. When they hugged for the first time that was when Hope knew he needed to protect this woman with everything he had in him and he failed. She was tough, a hard one to crack, and an even harder foe to beat which made protecting her not easy per say, but definitely less of a challenge than it must have been for her to protect him. And he failed. He failed her.

To make matters worse he realized how much he truly messed up. Not only had his mistake incapacitated Lightning, it also cost them precious time they did not have to waste. Sazh and Snow both came in periodically to check on the two and tell Hope not to worry, but how could he not?

He was growing antsy as the sun began its steady decline in the sky. It would be nightfall before they knew it and he didn’t want to think about if Fang and Vanille didn’t make it back before then.

Clunky footsteps that Hope knew to associate with Snow approached. He nearly snapped and told Snow to leave him alone when Snow crouched down next to him.

“You shouldn’t blame yourself for this,” he said.

Hope turned his fury burning gaze away from the wounds and to Snow. “Don’t say that! It’s my fault she’s hurt. It’s my fault we’re wasting time.”

“We were going to have to rest eventually,” Snow supplied.

“Not like this!” Hope said and gestured over to Lightning.

Snow became silent as he watched Lightning and the soft rise and fall of her chest. “She did it to protect you.”

Hope hung his head. “I know. I hate myself for it. I’m supposed to be protecting her!”

Snow laughed heartily and Hope was now exceedingly close to sending a fireball at the man’s chest. “I’m sure she’s happy to hear that you’re taking that so seriously. She’s never really allowed anyone else to opportunity to protect her, but she did for you. She really cares about you, you know?”

A lump formed in Hope’s throat and he tried desperately to swallow it down.

“She did what she did because she loves you. And I know she would not want you to blame yourself like this. She would tell you to learn from this and be a better partner in the next fight. That’s all.”

Hope knew Snow was right. Lightning wouldn’t hold this against him. She would use this as an opportunity to teach him. Everything she did was to train him, guide him in the right direction and not make the mistakes she said she made when they first met.

“But I did this to her,” Hope whispered. Uselessly he tried once more to heal her wounds. The glowing light washed over her form, but the wound did not close. The only saving grace was that the blood flow had been staunched.

“No you did not.” Snow’s tone was exceptionally firm and Hope wasn’t used to hearing it come from him. “An enemy did this. And you have been expending all your energy trying to heal her. So, I’m asking you to stop. We’re going to need you in top shape when we travel tomorrow.”

Everything Snow said made sense and Hope almost hated that it did. He dragged his gaze back towards Lightning and sighed. Finally he leaned back and dropped his aching arms. He hadn’t been aware of exactly how exhausted he was from using so much of his magic without a break.

“There we go. You need to relax. Lightning is going to be okay. I’m sure she said as much to you.”

“She did…” Hope trailed off.

“And do you trust her?”

Hope bristled as if he was being accused. “Of course I do!”

Snow clasped him on the shoulder. “Then trust that she will make a full recovery. Vanille and Fang know what they’re doing.”

As if summoned, Fang and Vanille rushed into the cave with a bundle of herbs in hand and a hollowed out stone amongst other general supplies. Vanille grinned brightly at Hope and deposited everything in her hands to the ground.

“Do you mind starting a fire for me while I get started over here?”

Hope leapt up and pulled together what he needed out of Fang’s hands.

“Eager aren’t we?” Fang asked.

Hope didn’t answer her as he began setting up what he thought was an appropriate amount of sticks. Fang clicked her tongue at him.

“Come on kid you can’t just do it like that. I didn’t realize that when you and Lightning made the fire the other night that she did all the work.”

Hope’s cheeks flared red because Lightning really had done it all. She had shown him what to do, but her setups were always more stable so whenever he did anything she would take over to fix it afterwards.

Fang scooched Hope over and showed him what to do as she fixed his mess. Soon enough Hope was snapping his fingers and a fire ignited in the pit they had set up.

“Excellent!” Vanille said. She had a bowl full of mashed up herbs and set it atop the makeshift stove. “This won’t take long at all. Now I need all the men to go away.” She told them cheerily.

Snow and Sazh shrugged, but Hope looked belligerent. “But I want to help!”

Fang cuffed him upside the head and Hope yelped.

“What was that for?”

“Just do as the lady says. We will call you back in when we’re done.”

Hope was pushed out of the cave by Fang who waved all of them off. Sazh merely laughed at Hope’s affronted expression.

“They have to dress her wounds, Hope,” he said. When Hope still didn’t look like he was understanding Sazh sighed. “They have to undress her first to flush out the toxins.”

Hope’s cheeks once again lit up this time for a completely separate reason. Suddenly he was glad he wasn’t in there to help. He wasn’t sure if he could.

So the three of them walked the perimeter making sure no creatures got too close, but it looked as if most of them were staying away. Sazh and Snow joked around most of the time and tried to pull Hope into it, but he was still too nervous. He kept clenching his hands together, a nervous tick he had yet to kick.

It felt like an eternity before Fang and Vanille called them back in. Snow eagerly jogged back with Sazh following. For some reason Hope didn’t want to face Lightning. Would she be mad at him? Would she tell him he was a failure? He was, but that didn’t mean he wanted to hear it from her.

He dragged his feet and kept his head down as he slowly approached the cave.

“Where’s Hope?”

Hope’s chest fluttered at Lightning’s voice. It was a little scratchy, but otherwise she sounded okay.

“I dunno. He was right behind us,” Snow trailed off.

Hope stepped into the mouth of the cave and all eyes were on him. He suddenly felt a lot smaller, a lot younger, and a lot more afraid. Which was weird because these people had become his family in a short amount of time and he was vastly more comfortable and confident around them than he had been with anyone outside of his mother ever before. But standing before them now he felt like the boy they had first met. That timid, scared, boy he didn’t want to be anymore.

And he wasn’t that way anymore. Thanks to Lightning.

Lightning stared at him as he stepped in and Hope immediately dropped his head to watch his fidgeting hands.

“Hope, come here please.”

Hope dragged his feet again as he approached Lightning. She was still propped up against the wall, but now that Hope was close he could see just underneath her collar. Before where there was blood and marred flesh was now neatly stitched together skin that would certainly leave a scar.

“Can you bend down?” Lightning asked.

Hope nodded and landed on his knees in front of her. He still refused to look at her so he was unprepared for when she wrapped her arms around him.

“I was so worried,” Lightning admitted. “I thought you were going to get hurt today.”

Hope’s head popped up. “You were worried?” A watery laugh escaped his throat. “I was scared to death! I couldn’t protect you.”

Lightning laughed softly, not loud enough for the others to hear, but reserved specifically for him. “We’ll just have to do better going forward won’t we?”

Hope’s chest swelled with love and warmth. She wasn’t mad. He was so grateful. He wrapped his arms around her and dropped his head to her shoulder so no one else would know he was crying out his relief.

“We will. I promise.”

**Author's Note:**

> I've been replaying FFXIII and noticed how much I enjoy the fact that when Lightning takes a bad hit she gives off a non-cookie cutter shriek and wanted to play around with what would happen if she didn't recover immediately. Also Hope is my best boy and he and Lightning are my favorite's so of course this had to focus on the two of them.
> 
> This isn't meant to be taken as shippy. You can sort of read it like a one-sided crush, but that wasn't my intention. I'm much more a fan of Lightning and Hope having a more familial relationship and for the group as a whole to create a family bond. 
> 
> Not gonna stop anyone from enjoying this or reading it whichever way they want though! So have at it! I wrote this in about two hours just to get this idea off my chest haha.


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